Festa della Repubblica: Wishing someone a happy national holiday

💬 Nationalities are written in lowercase in Italian, so it's italiani, not Italiani. gli is used here because the word starts with a vowel.

🇮🇹 This is the military parade in Rome along Via dei Fori Imperiali. It ends with the Frecce Tricolori "Tricolour Arrows" jets trailing green, white and red smoke.

💬 TV is read the Italian way, letter by letter: (tee-VOO). You'll also hear tivù and televisione "television".

💬 There's no word for "you" here, because the ending -i already tells you who's meant. Same pattern: Lavori? "Are you working?"

💬 pranzo also means "lunch" as a noun, as in il pranzo. Here it's a verb, and Italian uses the plain present tense for plans happening today.

🇮🇹 A long family lunch is the classic way to spend a public holiday in Italy. It often runs well into the afternoon.

💬 che + a describing word makes an instant "how...!" reaction. Swap in others: Che buono! "How tasty!", Che peccato! "What a shame!"

💬 alla is a + la merged into one word. Likewise, a + il becomes al: al tuo amico "to your friend".

💬 sei is the friendly "you are". With someone you address formally, say È molto gentile! instead.

🇮🇹 This is the casual version, used with friends and people you'd address informally. With strangers or older people, use Si figuri instead.

🇮🇹 Italians say this when parting during the day. From late afternoon onward, switch to Buona serata! "Have a nice evening!"